January 21, 2006 CMAS meeting

mkirda

Former CMAS member
JANUARY 2006 MEETING--REQUEST FOR VOLUNTEERS.


Dear CMAS Member,

You may have seen a previous announcement calling for volunteers for the December 2005 Frag Swap Meet. This email is to inform you further that for CMAS to continue we need your help even more.

But first some background information:

As you know, CMAS is aimed at ALL marine aquarists regardless of experience. We try to provide our members with a number of great benefits, including:

* monthly meetings, with guest speakers
* bi-monthly newsletters
* up-to-date web pages
* raffles
* field trips, and
* discounts from area pet stores

To make these activities happen requires the tireless efforts of a number of members, whether as a Trustee and/or a Board member (positions of President, Vice President, Secretary and Treasurer).

At this point, the Club is being managed by a core group that includes:
President - Doug Lehman
Vice President - John Brandt
Secretary - Arthur Schattke
Treasurer - Marelet Kirda
Trustee - Tom Sandercock (past President)
Trustee - Mike Kirda
Membership Co-Chairs - Jim and Marty Bash
Sponsor/Store Liaison - Paul Kolenda
Schaumburg Library Liaison - Steve Kossack


We understand that, for the most part, for a regular member, CMAS may be providing all that you need, especially for those of you whose main interest in belonging is the ability to attend the frag swaps. Over the past couple of years, attempts have been made by the above group to encourage more participation from members, whether it's to help decide on which speakers to invite, on what types of activities members would like to see, etc. The turning point for the club, however, was December 2004, when elections were to take place for the four Board positions (President, Vice President, Secretary and Treasurer). Needless to say, elections did not happen, as there were only about six attendees. Thus, the Board remained as is, and will do so until the next scheduled election in December 2006.

So, now our call for your help.
JOBS THAT NEED TO BE FILLED
President - current president desires to be replaced?
Vice President - no longer active
Treasurer - temporary, desires to be replaced by summer
Membership Chairman - must be replaced by summer
Newsletter editor - open
Raffle chairman - open

Our agenda for the January 21, 2006 is a discussion of the future of the club. We hope that you will make every effort to attend, in order to start a dialogue in person (rather than electronic dialogues) on what you're looking for from the club, and how we can sustain CMAS for the future. The CMAS BOD looks forward to seeing you, and beginning a constructive dialogue on our future.

CMAS Meeting Saturday, January 21, 2006 Schaumburg Library Rasmussen North 1:00 to 2:30 pm

Best regards, CMAS BOD
 
I believe this was brought up somewhere else, but if we could get the CMAS meetings a little closer to Chicago, it might be a little easier :p
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6353634#post6353634 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Vamp75
I believe this was brought up somewhere else, but if we could get the CMAS meetings a little closer to Chicago, it might be a little easier :p


If I had a frag for every time someone asked this, I'd be throwing out coral. ;)

Seriously, all we need is a volunteer to find us a place on the south side to meet. Every time it has been brought up, the board has asked people to suggest a south side or in-city meeting location, and that is the last we ever hear from them. We'd be happy to accomodate the request. Tell us where and we can look into it.

Regards.
Mike Kirda
 
Perhaps the current location is a middle ground for folks like me in the burbs. I'm not a member yet, but plan to sign up after the holidays.
 
The meetings are always on a Saturday in Schaumburg. That's why I have never attended.
 
Yeah, driving to Schaumburg isn't fun from here either. But making the trip to the Chi for us far west burb folks would be unbearable. I guess I should attend all the meetings I can while the location is as is. :)
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6357376#post6357376 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by CaptainCoral
Yeah, driving to Schaumburg isn't fun from here either. But making the trip to the Chi for us far west burb folks would be unbearable. I guess I should attend all the meetings I can while the location is as is. :)

You should attend all the meetings while there still *are* meetings.

Mike
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6580661#post6580661 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Dag
What happened at the meeting?

Don't have the time to post much now -

We did hammer out the next couple of meetings.

March is to be a virtual tank tour, two presenters at a minimum.
We might add a bit to that.

April and May, we are talking about a swap meet and a trip to Inland Aquatics. Which is which will be decided based on space and bus availability. Again, more details to hammer out, but looking good for both.

On the volunteer front, I'll have to post more later.

Regards.
Mike Kirda
 
Just an idea, why not virtual meetings? If you are planning virtual tank tours...

It would be easy to get a bunch of people in a messaging system, can even do voice (Skype?). Heck, I have even seen meetings done in a moderated Chat in Yahoo! Groups. Can have 2 or more face to face meetings per year, rest virtual?

Gary
 
Thankyou all who selflessly give of yourselves to offer people a place to learn, and meet, and share experiences. It would be sad to have the meetings go away. I have attended on and off for the past couple of years, and have just taken for granted that it is available. Please keep the club running
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6954617#post6954617 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by stogie
Thankyou all who selflessly give of yourselves to offer people a place to learn, and meet, and share experiences. It would be sad to have the meetings go away. I have attended on and off for the past couple of years, and have just taken for granted that it is available. Please keep the club running

Thanks for this.

We have been lucky to have Jim and Marty Bash as the backbone of the volunteers running the club. As they have had to step away, we put the call out for volunteers and a number stepped forward at the meeting. We have Bob Sosolik who is taking care of the membership duties. Jeni (PufferPunk) is working on getting out the information from our website to those members who are not yet on-line, this in place of the club newsletter. Boyd Corbett volunteered to become our Raffle chairman, a position which has been vacant for YEARS. The cool thing is that he has already gotten us some cool stuff for February, and more is coming this month.

For me personally, the meeting really brought a lot of people out and the response was very positive. We needed to recapture the enthusiasm, to feel like what we were doing was worthwhile.

We will continue, and we hope to see you this weekend.

Regards.
Mike Kirda
 
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